Monday, 17 February 2014

TweetWales has long
been a testing ground for the flying of drones.Although a few brave individual politicians have consistently raised
their voices against using our country in this way, far too many have swallowed
the convenient excuse that they might also have civilian uses as a fig leaf to
defend the jobs which the programme supports.

A fortnight ago, a new drone was unveiled.This one will
fly faster and higher than anything which has gone before, and is also built
using ‘stealth’ technology.It is
apparently “the most advanced air system”
yet, and is able to “deliver its weapons deep
behind enemy lines” (military speak for killing people, although why anyone believes that there are ‘enemy lines’ any
more is something of a mystery to me.)

They’re calling
it the “future of warfare”; a future
based on more effective killing machines with less risk to those who actually
order them to kill.Not exactly part of
any future that I’d choose.They’ve also
given it a nice Celtic name, ‘Taranis’.

One thing is perfectly
clear; even if it were true that there might be some limited applications for
existing drones in the civilian world, there is no requirement outside the
military for stealth technology.This is
a machine which has one, and only one, use – making war.I’d like to think that any suggestion that it
should be flown from the drone testing base in Wales would be rejected out of
hand, and that, just for once, the interests of peace would be placed above any
possible economic benefit.It isn’t
something I’d put a bet on though.